Before I tell you all about this delicious Butter Pecan Chicken recipe, let me just say… It feels like spring in Arizona. This is the time of year we start hoping the heat that summer brings won’t come too soon, and we can enjoy mild weather just a little bit longer.
I’ve been working out in my garden, pruning what survived the winter (tomatoes!), pulling out what didn’t (eggplant) and also planting some things I’ve never tried before (dahlias!). And did I tell you we have chickens now? I’m definitely that crazy chicken
Back to the Butter Pecan Chicken recipe – I think you’ll love this one! It’s sweet and savory, cooks in one pan, and doesn’t have a lot of ingredients. Butter, brown sugar, honey, chicken broth, dried herbs and chopped pecans simmer together in the skillet to make the most incredible sticky sweet glaze. I like to serve it with either mashed potatoes or a rice pilaf so none of that sauce goes to waste.
It is helpful if your chicken breasts are all relatively the same size so they will cook evenly. If yours are on the thick side, you can pound them out, so they are thinner. Be careful not to
Whenever I get recipe requests from you all, it’s almost always easy dinner ideas. I feel ya! That’s my struggle too. So here’s an idea – if you have a favorite, easy dinner idea and don’t mind sharing recipes, send it my way!
You can email them to me here: julie@lovelylittlekitchen.com
PrintButter Pecan Chicken
This super easy Butter Pecan Chicken comes together quickly in one skillet, and doesn’t have a lot of ingredients. Definitely a winner!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Pan Fry
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Kosher salt for seasoning
- pepper for seasoning
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
Instructions
- Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season both sides of the chicken with kosher salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon oil (I use avocado) and 1 tablespoon butter to the hot pan.
- Place chicken in the pan and cook for about 10 min on each side (depending on thickness).
- When the chicken is almost cooked through (about 150 degrees internal temp), remove the chicken from the pan, and add pecans, butter, chicken broth, brown sugar, honey, thyme leaves, and parsley. Whisk together over medium heat, then add the chicken back to pan.
- Simmer gently for about 5-8 more minutes, spooning the sauce over the chicken. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes when the sauce is bubbly and thickened, and the chicken is cooked through to 165 degrees.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 chicken breast
- Calories: 576
- Sugar: 33g
- Sodium: 498mg
- Fat: 32g
- Saturated Fat: 13g
- Unsaturated Fat: 16.2g
- Trans Fat: 0.8g
- Carbohydrates: 34g
- Fiber: 1.1g
- Protein: 39g
- Cholesterol: 151mg
we absolutely love the butter pecan chicken – I’ve made it twice in 3 weeks – however, I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong – the sauce is very watery whereas I was expecting it to be more of a glaze. I doubled the sauce ingredients so we’d have lots to pour on the potatoes and veggies and the 2nd time I cut the chicken broth in half – but still very watery – so delish my kids wanted to drink the left overs. Can you tell me if perhaps I’m doing something incorrectly? Or can I perhaps thicken it with cornstarch – and if so, how much would you suggest (if I didn’t double the recipe)?
Lynn, I’m so glad you all enjoyed. For a thicker sauce, you could either keep simmering the sauce (uncovered) to let it fully thicken, or you could definitely use a cornstarch slurry (one tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with about the same amount of cold water). Just whisk that into the almost finished sauce and bring back to a simmer until it is the thickness you prefer. Thank you so much for the feedback, and for trying my recipe.
Made tonight was a hit. Loved the taste was buttery sweet and the pecans made it my hub and loved it. Will make again the brown sugar and honey made a thick sauce cooked until thickened. A+++
Hello, love your recipes. I wondered why you seem to prefer dried herbs – like parsley and thyme in this recipe. Personally I use fresh herbs if available but wondered if you had considered the differences and favor dried.
Lauren, good question – I usually like to use fresh herbs when I have them, but find that most home chefs tend to use dried.
Was wondering if anyone tried baking instead of frying this chicken ? I bake all my chicken at 400 degree 20 minutes after I pound the chicken and comes very moist , this sounds good but I am handicap and easier to bake instead of trying to be near a stove to cook..
I made this tonight and oh my gosh it was so good
So glad you loved this recipe, Yvonne!
Has anyone ever made this without the added honey? Seems a bit much. Trying to make it a low carb meal.
Thanks
I had some pecans left over from Thanksgiving, did a search for “chicken pecan recipes” and this popped up, and I’m glad it did. We followed all the steps exactly, and it was delicious, adding this to our regular favorites now. Thank you!
I just whipped this up for the whole family and it was an instant smash hit!! Thank you.
I need to try this. It’s going on my menu. Sounds so yummy!
This was an absolute hit! My husband and I both went back for seconds. I paired it with a homemade brown rice pilaf I made with chicken broth, a little butter and dried parsley. The parsley in the rice marries well with the herbs in the chicken. We received a huge box of fresh pecans from Arkansas and this was the first recipe I had to try with them. This one goes on the regular rotation!
HOOOOO BOY.
Hot damn, this was delicious. And fast. And easy. Almost too fast and easy, because I could just eat this every day.
Since there are only a few of us in my family, I made this for our Canadian Thanksgiving meal, and it was perfection. Everyone was pleased. I appreciate that you use dried herbs, because fresh are SO costly here at this time of year.
Thank you for another wonderful recipe!
Great idea to make this for a smaller Thanksgiving gathering. So glad it was a hit! Thanks for your comment!
I only have walnuts on hand, do you think that could be an ok replacement for pecans?
I baked it at 350 degrees and served with stuffing and crispy asparagus. I already had brown sugared pecans from another recipe so I left out the brown sugar